Magic morning in Glen Affric, part 2

With the sun having burned off the morning fog, Glen Affric was transformed on this October day, as the sunshine illuminated the autumn colours of the birch trees and Loch Beinn a’Mheadhoin reflected the blue sky in its still waters. Autumn is when the Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) stand out the most from the birches, with the blue-ish green of their foliage contrasting with the yellows and golds of the birches.

The last of the clouds formed interesting patterns and shapes in the sky, and made for more aesthetically-appealing photographs than if it had been cloudless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the knoll where I was standing, overlooking Loch Beinn a’Mheadhoin, there’s a ridge just to the north, in the area known as Coille Ruigh na Cuileige, which means ‘wooded slope of the midges‘ in Gaelic. There is the site of the first major restoration project that Trees for Life carried out, when we fenced an area of 50 hectares in 1990 for forest restoration, in partnership with Forestry Commission Scotland.

By this time, the view over the loch was completely clear, and it was as though the fog which had been lingering over the pines on the promontory had never been there. The birches on the slopes of the knoll created a perfect natural frame for the view across the loch to the pines, which were still reflected almost perfectly in the water. However, a breeze was beginning to pick up as the sun warmed the air, and the mirror-like quality gave way to ripples and small waves, and the reflections were finished for the day.

There must have been more wind higher in the atmosphere though, as the clouds above were being stretched and shaped into unusual and photogenic patterns. They were constantly changing, so I spent a while appreciating them, taking a few photographs whenever they made an interesting composition with the trees and the land below. Glen Affric is on the main flight path for planes from the UK to North America, so sometimes the cloudscapes are spoiled by the linear pattern of jet contrails, but fortunately that wasn’t the case on this day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I headed down from the knoll towards the loch itself, as I knew there were some other groups of pines, in amongst the birches there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because Loch Beinn a’Mheadhoin is dammed, the water level fluctuates, and on this day it was low, so there were a lot of old pine stumps exposed on the flat ground where the water had receded. When the dam was built in the 1950s, the level of the loch was raised by 6 metres, and a lot of forest was lost on the flat ground in the valley bottom. Many trees were cut down before the water rose, but their stumps still remain and are revealed whenever the water level is low. They’re a sad reminder of how much of the Caledonian Forest has been lost, even though the contribution of hydro-electric schemes has played only a small role in that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The stumps seemed particularly incongruous and jarring on this beautiful day, even though the individual shape of each one is a natural sculpture with interesting organic forms. In fact, there are people who collect such stumps from the shores of other reservoirs and dammed lochs in the Highlands and sell them as garden sculptures!

Walking back into the forest, I returned to a large patch of fungi I had seen early in the morning, but which I hadn’t had time to photograph then, because I was concentrating on the foggy landscapes at the time. There were over a hundred of these fungi fruiting closely together – this habit of some species of fungi is known as trooping by mycologists. Although they looked familiar, I wasn’t able to identify them immediately myself, and I’m waiting to hear from Liz Holden, who helps me with fungal identifications, about which species they are.

In our area it’s been a disappointing year for fungi in 2012, with far fewer fruiting than in 2011, so I was pleased to see all of these ones now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By this time it was well into the afternoon, so I headed further west in the glen for the last part of the day, stopping to explore the pinewood area between Loch Beinn a’Mheadhoin and Loch Affric. This is readily accessible from the last car park in the glen, so it was a good use of my time, and the rest of the sunshine, to spend the remainder of the day there. Although there’s a visitor footpath there, almost all the visitors stay on it, so by wandering off in amongst the trees, I had the sense of being on my own in the woodland.

There were still some interesting cloud formations drifting over the landscape, and the low-angled sun gave some favourable lighting, so I was able to continue taking what had by this time become a large number of photographs on the day, even by my standards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was still on my quest to see, and photograph, the special autumn combination of Scots pines contrasting with the autumn colours of the birches in the sunshine, under a blue sky. Although the area between the two lochs is mostly dominated by stands of pure pines, I know where there are some birches growing amongst the pines, so I headed for those, to make the most of the last remaining sun.

One of those places offers good views of Sgurr na Lapaich (‘peak of the bog’ in Gaelic), which is one of the mountains on the north shore of Loch Affric. The light was just right when I reached the spot, and it provided a fitting finale to what had been a stunning and brilliant day in the glen. The magic of the morning, with its fog and perfect reflections, had evolved into a beautiful, sunny afternoon, with dramatic cloud formations passing over the old forest. I’d been touched deeply again by the specialness and majesty of the glen and the Caledonian Forest there, and I hope I’ve been able to convey some of that through the photographs on these two blogs. Here’s some video footage I shot, to give a further impression of this spectacular day:

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